Alicante's Secret Mountains

Land of the Moors

Just twenty-five kilometres from the Costa Blanca, as the crow flies, rise the secret mountains of Alicante. This is another world completely, where terraced slopes, dotted with small villages, climb towards craggy limestone peaks that soar over a thousand metres into the sky. As you walk, you discover secret fertile valleys and also sweeping views.

Nights: 4
Grade: 2
Terrain: deep ravines, limestone ridges, terraced valleys
Hotels: one rural inn; one 2-star hotel
Meals: dinner & breakfast each day, plus 2 picnics
Climate: Alicante has a long, hot summer and a warm spring and autumn - in March and November, the average daytime temperature is 19ºC, rising to 23ºC in May and October and reaching 27ºC in June and September

Starting point: Hotel de Tárbena (2*), Tárbena. You are very warmly welcomed to Valencia and the Hotel de Tárbena by Paco, who runs this tranquil, well-appointed village hotel and prepares excellent breakfasts and delicious home-cooked dinners for you.

Day 1: your first walk is an excellent introduction to the region's limestone landscapes, revealing very varied scenery and passing several breathtaking viewpoints from which you can admire the panorama of hills, gorges and fertile valleys. Watered by numerous springs, the area has been cultivated for centuries, and you pass many almond, avocado and carob groves. (16km, 6hrs)

Accommodation: Hotel de Tárbena, as above.

Day 2: today’s walk, a real highlight, is a very varied journey through a changing landscape. After passing through a cultivated valley, you follow an old muleteers’ trail to reach another broad valley of orchards. From here you rise into the hills to the south to reach the incredible double-arched rock formation of Els Arcs. Continuing with great views of interlocking valleys, you wind down into the town of Castell de Castells. You can shorten the walk by taking an alternative route for the last section. (20km, 7hrs or 17km, 6hrs)

Accommodation: Casa Pilar (rural inn), Castell de Castells. Converted from a traditional townhouse, this is a small, family-run hotel where charming and attentive owners Pilar and Juanjo have created a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Dinner and breakfast are served in the old vaulted stables.

Day 3: for your last day, we offer a choice of three circular walks. The first starts with a short transfer (pay locally), after which you walk along the floor of a gorge planted with almond and olive trees to the site of some fascinating 8,000-year-old Neolithic cave paintings, which you have time to visit. You return to Castell on paths and tracks that follow the course of a dry riverbed. The second ascends past olive, almond and carob groves to La Llacuna, so named because it was once the site of a former mountain lake. Nowadays it is home to considerable numbers of partridges and even quails. The third rises through the hills south of the town to reach a ruined Moorish watchtower which perches on precipitous crags, affording sweeping views for miles around. You return along an equally panoramic ridge. (17.5km, 6hrs or 10.5km, 4hrs or 13km, 5hrs)

Accommodation: Casa Pilar, as above

Prices & travel 2008/2009

£ per person based on 2 in a double rm	Walk price*	Single room
4 nights: 14 September-22 November 2008 & 3 January-13 April 2009
14 Sep-31 Oct	458	80
1 Nov-20 Dec	435	77
3 Jan-28 Feb	435	77
1 Mar-8 Apr	445	73
9-13 Apr	472	85
14-30 Apr	458	80
3rd+ person saving	95

*Price includes: 4 nights' dinner & breakfast, 1 picnic; return taxi from Alicante airport (out/home 1h)
Recommended destination airport: Alicante
Latest flight arrival time: flexible
Earliest flight departure time: flexible
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